The Murder of Laius

Abstract

In this article, the author reexamines the Oedipus myth, first noting that Laius represents an inner psychic reality. He asks us to look beyond what Oedipus did do—slaying his father and marrying his mother—to look at what he did not do. He offers that the basic evil, Oedipus' worst crime, was to consent to the voice of fate of the Delphic oracle, to follow through on what had had been prescribed for him, as opposed to creating his own wife and his own life. In this way, the evil in the myth is an inner one. Oedipus refused the more difficult task of being and confronting the source of personhood, which is the crying infant. Indeed, by heeding the voice of fate, he essentially murdered his inner potential of creating his own freedom.

Keywords:

• Oedipus
• Laius
• freedom
• fate
• Delphic oracle
• evil

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Neville Symington

Neville Symington is a psychoanalyst in private practice in Sydney, Australia, and a fellow of the British Psycho-Analytical Society. From 1977 to 1985, he held a senior staff position in the Adult Department of the Tavistock Clinic in London, and served as chairman of the Psychology Discipline for the Adult and Adolescent Departments, also at Tavistock Clinic. During the years 1987–1993, in Sydney, he was chairman of the Sydney Institute for Psycho-Analysis, and president of the Australian Psycho-Analytic Society from 1999 to 2002. In 2007, he started a clinical organization called Psychotherapy with Psychotic Patients (PPP). He is the author of The Analytic Experience; Emotion and Spirit of Narcissism: A New Theory; The Making of a Psychotherapist; The Spirit of Sanity; A Pattern of Madness; How to Choose a Psychotherapist; The Blind Man Sees; A Healing Conversation; Becoming a Person through Psycho-Analysis; The Psychology of the Person; and A Different Path. He is coauthor with Joan Symington of The Clinical Thinking of Wilfred Bion (Routledge). He has also published a novel, A Priest's Affair (Free Association Press), and a book of poetry, IN-GRATITUDE and Other POEMS (Karnac Books).